Recently, in an office, an MFP (multi-function peripheral) which includes a plurality of functions such as a print function, facsimile function and a scanner function, and which stores data utilizing these functions is used. The data can be shared among a plurality of MFPs and PC servers connected through a network.
If a user wants some information, the user generally uses, for example, a personal computer on the network and manually searches a server, etc., to display retrieved information. If the retrieved information must be printed, the user instructs the MFP to print the retrieved information.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-280830 discloses an information acquisition system that acquires information existing on a network from a multi-function peripheral without using a personal computer, etc. This information acquisition system connects a multi-function peripheral utilizing the information through a network to a server operated by a provider of an information providing service. The multi-function peripheral transmits a condition of information provided from the information providing service, a user requesting the information, and the unique information of the multi-function peripheral through the network to the server. The server receives the data transmitted from the multi-function peripheral, refers to a customer information database to retrieve information conforming to the condition requested by the user, and sends back the retrieved result to the requesting multi-function peripheral.
However, in the information acquisition system described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-280830, a user must input desired information to the multi-function peripheral and it is problematic that this operation takes time and effort. Since the multi-function peripheral only acquires information specified by the user from the server in this case, it is difficult to acquire a wide range of information such as information related to the desired information.